Student accused of cyberbullying expelled, loses college scholarship

At first, the high school senior was simply suspended from school for 10 days, according to the Huffington Post, for violating the school’s policy against bullying behavior and Internet use. Now the student has been kicked out of school entirely.

It all started with an online prank involving a particular teacher’s pass code-protected website, where the expelled student shared the pass code and invited his peers to go in and post photos and comments intended to be “funny,” though the substance of the posts apparently crossed a line into cyberbullying.

As a result, the teacher had to have counseling.

To the student’s credit, he says that while he should not have given out the pass code, he did not post the offending content, and should not be expelled for other students’ behavior.

As a prime example of the kind of ripple effect that these kinds of allegations can have in a young person’s life, the student was not only expelled, but has lost a college scholarship. As the Huffington Post reports, the student said, “You know I’d like to go back to school, I’d like to get my diploma and go to Westfield State like I planned on, but I don’t see that happening.”

The article does not mention whether or not the student was charged with a crime, but more and more states are beginning to classify certain types of online computer-related behavior like cyberbullying (beyond the usual suspects like possession of child pornography), as crimes.